


It's Just Beneath the Skin

by Starjargon



Category: Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman, Norse Religion & Lore, Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Body Swap, Bodyswap, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Frigga (Marvel) Knows All, Gen, Inner Beauty, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Minor Frigga/Odin (Marvel), Non-Consensual Outing of secret, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Odin Gets it Wrong, Odin loves his sons, Racism, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-directed racism, Thor (Marvel) is Not Stupid, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Thor is not always right, parenting is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starjargon/pseuds/Starjargon
Summary: Loki tried to change Thor into a cat. Loki failed. Now he has to deal with being in the big oaf's body. And worse. With Thor being in his.
Relationships: Fenrir & Loki (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja & Loki (Marvel), Loki & Jormungand (Marvel), Loki & Sleipnir (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel), Sif & Warriors Three (Marvel)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76
Collections: Marvel Reverse Big Bang 2019, Ships are fun but so is not Shipping





	It's Just Beneath the Skin

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bodyswap shenanigans](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991008) by [Amberdreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amberdreams/pseuds/Amberdreams). 



> TW: Thor, to prove a point, goes against Loki's wishes and reveals a secret he wishes could remain hidden. He is not correct in doing so, but I did try to explain his motivations. Be aware if this is a trigger for you.
> 
> On another note- this is my 100th posted work!!!!
> 
> Title from "Monster" by Skillet.
> 
> Please Review.

“Brother, what hast thou done?” Thor said through Loki’s mouth, looking down at himself and then over at his own body in shock. A cat looked up at him judgmentally for disturbing her, then flicked her tail as she meowed and walked away.

Thor watched his body’s mouth gape, then grin mischievously.

“Sorry about that, Thor. You were supposed to end up in the cat,” Loki replied as he pointed toward the animal, not sounding too sorry at all.

“What is in your mind, Loki?” Thor asked, making guttural noises as he got used to a different voice when he spoke.

“Well, you are, at the moment.” Thor never knew his voice sounded quite so… kingly. Still- he knew better than to indulge his brother’s schemes.

“Funny. So, go ahead and fix this.”

“… I can’t.” Loki in Thor’s body said with a perplexed look on his face, staring after the cat that was still haughtily sauntering away and who was very much not-his-brother.

“Loki! I’m in no mood for one of your jests.”

“I jest not, Thor. My body is full of magic. If you didn’t notice, it’s also a bit occupied at the moment.” Loki pointed to his Thor-inhabited body, before flexing his borrowed, very large hand. “And this… loud and smash-y as you are, brother, you are no mage.”

“Well, what do we do now? Never do you transform me permanently, so speak. Tell me what the conditions were.”

“Conditions?”

“I know you, brother,” Thor explained, reaching a more slender hand to clasp behind his own body’s neck, “and you always tie my transformations to some ridiculous task. What was the task you had in mind?”

“Well, you were supposed to end up in the cat, so there’s now no way to know where the spell went wrong,” Loki explained, using his bulk to shy away from his brother’s familiar offering of comfort.

“LOKI!!!”

“Peace, Thor. I’ve transformed you many times and you always manage to change back. I’m sure this time is just like those others.”

“Are you sure?”

Loki closed his eyes in thought. “… I shall research. Believe me brother, I have no desire to remain in this body one _instant_ more than necessary.”

“I am due on Midgard in 5 days hence.”

“Meanwhile, what am I to do? I have other commitments, and now I look like a bulging oaf.”

“You look better than ever.” Thor said with a chuckle.

“Centuries together and your vanity still manages to astound me.” Loki replied dryly.

Thor looked perplexed, then began waving Loki’s arms around erratically.

“What are you doing now, Thor?” Loki asked in his much-deeper voice.

“How am I to defend myself if I’m attacked?” Thor asked, still testing his borrowed body’s agility.

“I don’t know, call your blasted hammer to you.”

Thor-in-Loki’s body reached out his hand.

Mjolnir, which lay 3 yards away, didn’t budge.

He forcefully reached for it once more. It stayed adamantly still.

Finally, he stalked (a lot less menacing as he struggled to adjust to his newly- acquired body, zig zagging at first before he got most of his balance and carried on) toward his hammer. He bent to pick it up. It remained unmoved on the ground.

Loki-in-Thor’s body rolled his eyes.

“So, it appears you shall be without you precious stick for the time being.”

“You pick it up.” Thor instructed.

“What?” Loki asked, dumbly.

“Come over here and pick up the hammer, Loki. Then, you can pass it to me, and I can wield it.” Thor smiled at his own loophole.

Loki raised Thor’s brow.

“It’s your fault I don’t have it, therefore it is your responsibility to fix it,” Thor claimed reasonably.

Loki huffed, then made his way, nearly tripping only once whilst trying to command his brother’s body.

Mjolnir budged an inch, when he pulled it, but moved no further.

“Well, that’s disappointing,” he remarked. “Now you’ll just have to rely on your wits.” His smirk looked misplaced on Thor’s face.

“We shall go see mother.” Thor declared, turning to make his way to the palace. Loki shook his head, matching Thor’s strides.

“Very well, but I’m blaming you.”

“YOU SWITCHED US, LOKI!!” Thor bellowed. Loki used his new bulk to push his own body aside.

“I was going for the cat!” Loki reiterated.

Frigga smiled softly as her boys walked off, bickering loudly. She walked into the throne room.

“It seems our sons are in for another lesson, dear husband,” she said with a small shake of her head.

“What have they done now?” the king asked his queen warily.

“They have managed to switch bodies.”

“To what end?”

“They believe it was one of Loki’s pranks gone wrong. Yet I believe somehow, our son had nothing to do with it. Tis a strange magic around them. But it seems benign.”

“Ah,” Odin nodded sagely. “So, what is the lesson?”

“We know not how the spell is to wear off, only that it can be reversed. But still. There is always a lesson to be had in walking in another’s footsteps.”

“Indeed. But are you sure that is a lesson they need learn?” he asked as Frigga came closer.

“Have faith in our sons,” she whispered, placing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.

Loki and Thor continued their arguing through Asgard’s many halls, heading to Loki’s room and therefore his extensive library.

“Obviously, you are not as skilled a mage as you thought, Brother, else this could be reversed by your hand!”

“I don’t have my hands, you do!” he bit back in frustration. He picked up a knife to throw at his annoying sibling, then realised another repercussion of his spell.

He sighed. “I can’t even take out my frustration with a good stabbing, else I wound my own flesh,” he lamented.

“You’ve stabbed me at least 82 times since we were eight years old. Would you like me to try my hand at it?”

“Eighty-one.”

“Iceland two years ago, when you were conjuring that volcanic creature, and the Avengers and I stopped you.”

“Ah, yes, but that was just an icicle, it hardly counts.”

“It took days to close!”

“Mother didn’t even call the healers when we returned. Infant,” Loki scoffed, pulling out a scroll and examining it, before putting it off to one side.

“It wears on her when we argue. Expected though it be.” Thor pulled a book from the wall, leafing through the pages, though Loki doubted he understood the true focus of their search.

“I like to think we keep her entertained, refereeing our… _tête-à-têtes_.” Thor’s face once more lit up in Loki’s familiar half-smirk. They continued going through the contents of Loki’s library in silence long into the day, until dusk lit up the room in vibrant echoes of colour.

Finally, Thor broke the quiet. “It bothers Father as well,” he hedged. At Loki’s- well, _his_ raised brow, he elaborated, “when his sons fight one another.”

Loki closed the book he had been reading, standing and looming over his erstwhile body.

 _“Your_ father spent our lives telling us lies. Claiming we _both_ would be king of _one_ throne. Making sure I knew what kind of monster I was born to be. And a failure at even that.” He picked up the book closest to him, stomping (this body was good at stomping, he noted with a frustrated delight) out the door to the brother’s common room. Thor followed.

“No. He never told you because he didn’t _want_ you to feel that way, Loki.”

Loki spun around, seething. “He didn’t tell me because he wanted a tool to bargain.! A pawn to play his games. He can pretend, but he will _never_ love the Frost Giant reject. He has one son and one trophy! To claim otherwise is falsehood.”

Thor shook Loki’s head sadly, then he had an idea. He concentrated, using years of hearing his brother go on and on about his magic, and reached deep inside his stolen body. Suddenly, the pale features of his brother began to turn a deep, dark blue hue.

“What are you doing?! Thor, cease this! Cease, I ask of you!” Thor heard his brother’s panic in his own voice, but knew he had but one recourse if Loki truly believed all he had said. Suddenly, this spell became a gift.

“You are no monster, my brother. And if this is what it takes, I will prove it to you.”

“That is _my body,_ Thor!” Loki bellowed, lightning flashing outside as the Thunder God’s body raged.

“Which _you_ put me in!” Thor answered, the threatening elements raging outside his by right, and therefore no threat to the one who normally wields them.

“I did no such thing! Cease, no one wants to see a runt Jotun prince in Asgard nor any other realm!” 

“I see nothing but my brother, Loki. No matter your complexion. I don’t see… a monster. I don’t see a relic or a pawn or any of those things you keep thinking. And it’s time you saw more than a Frost Giant as well.”

Thor’s eyes welled with angry tears as Loki inhaled a shuddering breath, faced with a reality from which he had run since he discovered his true heritage. The first two times he had seen the monster before him, it had been no more than 2 foreign hands. But now, looking through Thor’s eyes, he saw the fulness of the creature he was born to be. He thought to grab his knife and stab through his brother anyway, his hatred so pure for the face at which he stared he gave no thought to ending the life in his own body- the body of a runt Jotun prince, so deformed no father in any realm wanted him, and so terrifying Asgard and Midgard shuddered at the memory of his birth people.

Before he got a chance to grab his dagger, however, Thor turned his body and began to walk away.

“Wait- where are you going, Thor?! You do not mean to be seen like that?”

“I am hungry, so I go to dine, Loki.”

“Thor, if you leave these rooms like that, you are dead to me and no brother of mine.”

“And if I do not, my brother will never cease to believe lies perpetuated in his own head. I’ll not have it. You are Loki, Prince of Asgard. Odin’s son. You should have no shame in that.”

“That is _not_ your decision!!!!”

Thor turned around, looking down at the foreign hands and feet, then at the distress in his brother’s eyes. Eyes full of fear and hatred staring back at him, an expression he could not reconcile his own face making toward one he held so dearly.

“It is today.” And with that, he walked down to the feast hall, ignoring the whispers and blatant glares all the way there.

Loki followed behind him, giving glares of his own, surprising people with the menace in the normally chipper oldest princes’ eyes. Thor’s reputation, position, and muscular frame quelled any outright hostility that may have come from a Frost Giant in their midst.

Sif and the Warriors Three looked up at the approach of Loki the Jotun and Thor, who was brooding, and exchanged confused glances.

“What is the meaning of this?” Sif asked cautiously, her hand nonchalantly going to her sword.

“Friends!” the Frost Giant began, pausing when he noticed Hogun and Volstagg reaching for their weapons as well.

“Be at peace, he is no threat,” Loki-in-Thor’s body explained despondently. Thor-in-Loki’s body turned around to face his brother, then closed his eyes at his own closest friends’ behaviour. “It’s Loki’s true form.”

Fandral looked between the two brothers, his expression never changing as he observed the Jotun and Aesir, then looked toward the blue brother and asked, “Is that truly you, Loki? Or is this some trick we are meant to figure out?”

“It is no trick,” the true Loki responded glumly, weary and full of shame.

“Well, not his usual tricks anyhow,” Thor responded, confusing his friends as he referred to Loki as a separate being. “He switched our bodies. And until he can find the means to change us back, I thought I’d take the opportunity to show him he has nothing to fear from his true form or his Aesir form, he is my brother no matter his face.” He paused, regarding his three now-guilty looking friends critically. “Unless his doubts were founded.” Thor continued, staring at them through eyes they had all learnt long ago to hate and fear.

“So… you are truly Thor,” Fandral asked, staring at Loki’s face with puzzlement, not judgment, “And you are Loki?” He addressed his friend’s form.

Loki sulkily crossed Thor’s massive arms and nodded.

“Well- that is truly a good jest,” he laughed, scooting aside and offering room on either side of himself for both brothers. “You, there!” he beckoned a servant. “Would you be so kind as to bring both of our princes some mead and some more of this wonderful food you were so generous with,” he asked, giving her a smile and a wink as she giggled and went to do as requested. “Come, Loki. Sit. If you now have Thor’s appetite, you must be famished.” He patted the seat on his right, then turned his winning smile on the Jotunn princeling who was currently Thor; no part of his face indicating the vaguest hint of fear or distrust. “And you, Thor, must try to control yourself. I doubt Loki wishes to be as well-fed as Volstagg when he returns to his rightful body.”

“Tis nothing but a healthy appetite,” Volstagg replied, taking his cues from Fandral and engaging both brothers as he once did. They discovered by accident that Loki’s body’s current form brought on the frost bite as all Jotun’s did, so they took care to touch only Thor’s garments, but they continued to address him as their friend in every other respect, much to Loki’s hopeful astonishment and onlookers’ surprise.

The rest of the night was spent in merriment, with The Warriors Three and Thor acting as foolish as ever, and despite the looks of distrust Sif would shoot Loki’s way, several times did their eyes meet and they both simultaneously sighed at the four men’s antics, grinning in mutual understanding. So boisterous and _normal_ did they all act together, that when at last Thor and Loki retired, few remained in their path who spared their Frost Giant prince a second glance.

“But I thought you were going to continue your research on our current plight,” Thor said the next morning as his brother walked swiftly past.

“And so I shall, but as I mentioned, I have other commitments I must attend.”

“More important than trying to get your own body back?”

“Far more important,” Loki replied, brushing past his brother as he tried to escape.

“Well, what demands your attention so?” Thor asked, reaching out a blue hand, before remembering his predicament, and touching the cloak Loki wore instead.

Loki sighed, turning to face his brother.

“As much as you believe otherwise, Thor, some of us do have interests and lives outside of you.”

Thor stared at him, searching for what secrets his brother could be hiding, until Loki was forced to look away from the eyes that would haunt him in his sleep.

“You have not said I can’t come,” Thor said petulantly, following his brother as he made his way through the palace.

“Believe me, where I am going holds absolutely _no_ interest for you,” Loki declared, turning, only to be met by Frigga.

He froze as he watched his mother assess his natural form as his brother stood still, knowing how important this moment was for Loki. Finally, Frigga’s face broke out into a soft smile, and she reached a hand up to cup Thor’s cheek.

“No, don’t!” Loki warned, lurching forward to spare his mother the consequences of touching his natural cursed frozen skin, when he watched as his Jotun face began to change, his features morphing into the face he knew and accepted as his own.

“You are always beautiful, my son. And even now protect me, even as you did your father so many eons ago.”

She caressed Loki’s cheek, and Thor could not help but to let loose a few tears.

“What?” Loki asked, breathless, as he watched his features return to those of the dreaded Frost Giant he was born.

Frigga turned to Thor’s body, addressing her youngest son.

“When Odin found you, he feared because of your heritage you would never know the power of your parents’ embrace. But you, my clever Loki,” she said, reaching to touch his borrowed cheek as she had just done Thor’s, “you transformed yourself in your father’s arms, rendering our family capable of touching you to our heart’s content,” she wiped a tear from his cheek, gazing into the familiar eyes of one son and seeing the spirit of the other. “But never for a moment believe we would have shied away from your true visage.” She gazed at Thor, wearing Loki’s face proudly. “Your father always has his reasons, and sometimes he gets things wrong. But never doubt his love for us all.”

Loki began to weep in his mother’s arms, staring at her pleadingly, willing her to understand.

“I am the monster he warned us about.”

“No, my love! No. You came from a monster, one filled with rage and hate and superiority. One who left his own child to die. But his loss was our gain, my son. Odin wanted you to understand why he did what he did in the war. To understand his fear and anger toward the Frost Giants who would destroy innocents in the name of conquest. I don’t think he realised he was teaching you boys to fear what he did. Nor that he never painted all Jotuns as anything more than monsters. It is our actions, not our blood that determines who is a monster. As the Frost Giantess Bestla, mother of Odin Borson would attest.”

Both boy’s heads whipped around at that revelation, Frigga’s smile widening as she took in their shock.

“No parent is perfect, my loves. We just try to do the what we can with the knowledge we possess, and we hope for the best.”

She gave Loki’s cheek one last pat, and then Thor’s, before telling Loki, “Tell them I said hello, would you?”

Loki, gobsmacked, simply nodded his head at her, smiling a knowing smile at her, before looking to Thor, who had returned Loki’s pale skin to blue once more. They had an entire silent conversation with their eyes before they watched their mother walk away, leaving behind more questions than answers.

“Where _are_ we going, brother?” Thor asked annoyingly, as Loki made his way to the kitchens. He gathered the oddest array of foods Thor had seen from his brother, then made his way to the stables.

“I told you, Thor, nowhere that would interest you. Now, run off and see if any of your… _clever_ little friends has figured out how to reverse this spell, so I could have my body and my face back.”

“Do you think Mother spoke true?” Thor asked, ignoring his brother’s attempts to be rid of him.

“She usually does. Though she may be blind to fathe- _Odin’s_ faults. And one good giantess who is the exception does not mean the rest of the Jotuns aren’t monstrous.”

“One good giantess and one good Aesir Jotun.” Thor said confidently with a nod.

“I nearly succeeded in taking over Midgard with an alien army and almost razed a town with the Destroyer,” Loki reminded him.

“Two crimes, for which you served your penance,” Thor explained.

“That thing in Iceland. Alliance with Doom. Broken alliance with Doom that lead to that thing in Iceland,” Loki kept listing. “Plus, just yesterday, I tried to turn you into a cat.”

“The point is, Brother, I know what it is to be lost. And you just haven’t found your way yet.” Thor insisted, feeling as though… something were happening inside his temporary body, and when he looked down he had a very voluptuous figure in a very small outfit.

“I see Amora’s found her way into your subconscious,” Loki said with a smirk.

“This isn’t funny, Loki. How do I turn it off?”

“It’s my body, Thor. There isn’t a magic switch to change it. Just… concentrate.” The Enchantress’ delicate features scrunched up until her body changed and-

“No, no. I refuse to have two of you running around Asgard. Bad enough you abuse my actual body with your insistence in living out your hero complex, you don’t get to just let me suffer alone. Change my body back to me.”

Thor’s second face frowned, then Loki’s own natural form was before him once again. Blue, as Thor seemed determined to remain.

Loki opened the stable doors, bypassing his own horse.

“You still never told me where we are going, brother,” Thor explained.

“Where _I_ am going, Thor. I told you, it would bore you.”

“I am in my brother’s body following myself. I doubt I shall be bored, Loki.”

Loki rolled his eyes, opening a hidden door in the stable wall.

“Hello, Sleipnir,” Thor greeted cheerily once both brothers walked through.

The horse whinnied, flicking his tail and stomping all eight hooves, twisting his head to and fro.

“Loki, is this where we are going today?”

Loki ignored him, reaching for Sleipnir’s head. Sleipnir responded with a screech as he moved his head back and forth, pawing at the ground frantically. Thor concentrated once more when he saw the frantic animal, forcing his skin into the familiar shade he knew. If they were going to ride him, as Loki seemed keen to do, it would be better if he were not capable of freezing by touch. Loki, meanwhile, was trying stop the horse from bolting back into the fields Thor could see beyond the open stall.

“It’s all right, my darling,” Thor heard his voice gently soothe. “I know I look different, but it is I, you have my word.” As Thor glanced over, he watched his own large frame attempting to calm the animal, who was just beginning to settle.

“Tis a simple spell that should wear off soon,” Loki was reassuring the creature. “In the meantime, would you mind carrying me and my body off to see the others?” Loki-in-Thor’s body asked. Sleipnir’s head shook back and forth, and he stood still, allowing Loki to settle atop him with neither saddle nor bridle, before turning to Thor. “If you insist on bothering me today, go ahead and climb on,” he offered dryly.

Thor went up to Sleipnir’s face, gently stroking his nose and scratching between his eyes.

“Hello, Sleipnir,” he offered again, Loki’s soothing voice seeming to calm the animal further. He patted his flank one more time before climbing on behind Loki. “Will Father care we are taking his horse out?” he asked cautiously.

Both Loki and Sleipnir snorted at the question. Once both were mounted, Sleipnir ran faster than wind and took them to an enormous cave. Loki dismounted, bringing his too-large pouch of various foods out.

Then, he whistled, before going to a fathomless lake to one side of the endless cave and touched it gently, yet repeatedly, in a sort of rhythm.

A loud, low growl sounded from deep, deep within the cavern, and the water began to stir lightly, then to bubble, then to thrash like a sea during a storm.

Thor dismounted from Sleipnir, hand on the hilt of a sword he had chosen in Mjolnir’s absence. Sleipnir came up behind him and nudged him. Hard. He turned around, offended, and the horse nudged him again. He stared at the horse. The horse stared back. Finally, Thor-in-Loki’s body removed his hand from his weapon, standing ostentatiously with his hands behind his back.

Nearly simultaneously a wolf he had not seen since he was but as large as a house and a serpent he hadn’t met since he could wind through the palace came from the back of the cave and the water, respectively, and charged him. Since Sleipnir took issue with his weapon, Thor closed his eyes in concentration, changing his current body itself into a weapon of ice. His own body walked up and stood in front of him, then, holding out his hands as though offering himself (in _Thor’s_ body) to the massive creatures with a large smile on his face.

“My boys,” Loki-in-Thor’s body began, “as you can see, I not in that body, but in this… mouth-breather’s body at the moment.”

“There’s no need for the commentary,” Thor muttered.

“You literally nearly pulled a weapon on my children,” Loki muttered back, and Thor knew that look of anger on his own face.

“They are not children, Loki, they are-“

“Monsters?” Loki challenged, reminding Thor of the claims made by both him and Frigga. Both brothers stood perfectly still, challenging, when the gigantic wolf came over to Thor’s body and licked his father in greeting.

“Yes, hello my baby,” he replied, turning to address Fenris. “It has been far too long.”

Thor sighed, put upon, and turned back to Sleipnir. “The Midgardians have a saying- put your money where your mouth is. I suppose now is the time for me to do so.” He reached out a hand toward the horse, then realised it was still Jotunn blue. He began to withdraw it when Sleipnir put his nose into the outstretched hand, his snout turning ice blue and just as quickly regaining its normal colour.

“His dam was a Frost Giant, Thor. I doubt my birth form will affect any of them,” Loki commented, now nuzzling the massive snake.

Thor shuddered, but did his best to hide it. “My apologies, nephew. Sometimes I forget your parentage.”

“You watched me give birth,” Loki commented, now scratching behind Fenris’s ear and petting Jormungand between his vast eyes.

“And as traumatic as that experience was, you could see why I try so hard to block it out,” Thor responded.

Loki snorted again. “I don’t see how it was more traumatic for _you_ than it was for _me._ ”

“Well. We’ll call it a draw,” Thor said, still staring distrustfully at Loki’s two other monster-children. He ignored the glare his brother threw at him, looking toward the massive beasts and trying to think through his next action. “This is why you brought raw meat and carrots?” he prompted, indicating the pouch his body had been lugging since Loki went through and emptied all he found in Asgard’s kitchen.

“Hmm. I thought the kids and I would have a picnic.” He turned toward his children. “Your grandmother sends her regards,” he remembered to pass along.

Thor winced once more at his phrasing, shuddering to remember he was related to these beasts of nightmares.

“You know, if you wanted to, I’m sure you could get that spell right next time. Change their forms so they look normal.” Loki looked at him, his own eyes assessing his worth. He thought Loki would comment, but instead he shuffled the three of them around a massive blanket he set out, putting food in front of each respective child.

Thor sat beside his brother, occasionally pausing to pet the familiar Sleipnir, while choosing to ignore his other two hideous nephews.

“Is that what you would have me do?” Loki asked quietly after a while.

“Hmm?” Thor asked, proud of himself for how nonchalant he was being in his current circumstances, surrounded by terrifying creatures all around.

“My children. Do you think you or father could love them if they weren’t… monstrous?” He hesitated not at the word choice, but in using it to describe his own children.

Thor paused in his eating, staring down at his blue, Jotun hands. _Loki’s_ blue, Jotun hands.

Then he looked up at his brother, seeing a vulnerability reflected in his eyes, despite the face he currently wore. Instead of answering quickly, as he was wont to do, Thor closed his own eyes and thought. He knew his answer would truly define his relationship with his brother, and it would affect Loki’s own self-estimation.

He thought back through the last two days, how ashamed Loki was of a heritage he’d had no part in. The fear reflected in his brother’s eyes as he waited to be rejected. His own anger at his friends’ treatment of a face- a face that did not define the man underneath. Frigga’s love for that face, and all the others her son had worn. The face Loki hated and was so sure Odin despised and feared as much as he. 

And then he thought about Loki’s sons. Loki’s insistence that Thor would not enjoy the day ahead, and his tentative invitation to join him nonetheless. 

He thought about their father. Remembered the fear Loki had when he revealed one of his tricks would result in a child. The utter _joy_ Loki had when he had first looked upon Sleipnir. Odin had stared at Loki and his new freakish baby, and declared Sleipnir a strong mount, worthy of a king, and trained him to be the swiftest, bravest, most famous horse in all Asgard and the nine realms. Any who had mocked ceased their laughter when they saw the King’s now-familiar steed in all his glory. Then he remembered Fenris and Jormungand, and Loki’s shame and fear that he had gone too far when he brought them home when they were born. He remembered just how long Odin had tried to keep them in the palace before their size and appetite made it impossible and he sent them off.

He realised how much a rejection of his children this would seem to Loki, the same as Volstagg, Sif, and Hogun’s actions seemed a rejection of his brother to Thor.

And then he thought about his own actions. How he had been so determined Loki see the man beneath the monster, but he still reached for his own weapon when confronted with his nephews. How he was so focused on praising himself for his nonchalance in this cave that he hadn’t bothered to greet or even acknowledge his own brother’s more… different children. And he felt shame and compassion in equal measures, as well as a desire to erase the hesitation in his brother’s eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw Loki still staring- still waiting for him. Thor stood to Loki’s full height, then turned his back on his brother completely, instead making his way over to the giant serpent in front of him.

“It has been far too long, Jormungand,” he declared, reaching out his hand. “If you’d allow me, I’d like a chance to catch up.” The snake stared at him distrustfully. Then, it butted its head against Thor-in-Loki’s body. Thor hesitated but a second, before wrapping his arms around his nephew.

“And you, Fenris,” Thor turned to the immense wolf next. “I would hear of your adventures as well.” 

Fenris nudged at Thor, sniffing, then licked a massive tongue over him.

Thor smiled, then turned back to answer his brother.

“It was I who has been the monster, Loki. I should have shown you there is no shame in abnormality. I would have you love your children exactly as they are, and teach me, so I might do the same. And perhaps someday, you could feel the same about yourself.” Then, Thor smiled at his brother, changing his form back to his more familiar Aesir face.

Loki stared hopefully into his brother’s eyes, his own piercing green facing Thor’s deep blue, and then he smiled. He thought his own mouth was quirking into a smile as well, until suddenly, he was looking at _Thor._ That is- _Thor_ in _Thor’s_ body.

Both Thor and Loki looked down, patting themselves to make sure their eyes were true, then they looked up each other and began to laugh, joyously.

Fenris whined after a little while, and Thor patted his flank.

“You are correct, Nephew. It is time we returned to our meal.”

And Thor sat himself down between Fenris and Jormungand, offering them bits of meat from his own lunch, joking with them and regaling them with some of the adventures he and Loki had had throughout the years.

And when halfway through the tale of Thrym, he watched Loki hesitantly change his form to blue, staring fearfully at his hand before flexing it and then looking up with dark Jotun eyes, Thor made sure he smiled proudly at the man who was still his brother.

The cat Thor was originally meant to be continued to jaunt down the street, through an alleyway, and to a long-forgotten once-path down, down, down into the darkness.

“You’ve kept your end of the bargain,” Odin proclaimed to it.

The cat looked up at him and its tail gave a swish.

“I release you. And I shall bother you no more, Angerboda.”

The cat stared into his eyes, then transformed into a terrifying and beautiful woman.

“And my fee?” she answered with a resonant, chilly voice. “I have saved your sons, what do I get?”

“Hela shall rule all of Niflheim. Your daughter shall be queen and defender of the realm, and the souls of the dead shall be hers to rule.”

Angerboda’s gaze bored into Odin as surely as her feline form.

“See it is done,” she warned, then gave a nod, and vanished into the earth.

Odin sighed, catching the ravens he had sent to look after his sons, then went back up to the palace, waiting for both of his boys to come home, together.


End file.
